Abstract:

The Turkish carpets with a great importance in world’s carpet history have their origins in Pazırık Carpet, the world’s oldest and the first knotted carpet which was produced by the Central Asian Turks. Carpet tradition of Turks was kept by the Anatolian Seljuk Empire. It had its golden age with the naturalist carpets woven in Bursa and its vicinity in the 16th century that corresponds to the Ottoman period. The Turkish carpets included in the religion and society-thematic paintings made in Renaissance period by the European painters in various countries were regarded as the expression of wealth and magnificence. The Ottoman-Turkish carpets illustrated in portraits of the English aristocrats as well influenced the English carpet art in addition to adding aesthetic values to the paintings. In this study performed in this context, literature of the portraits of English aristocrats that involve Turkish carpets was reviewed. Besides, painters of the paintings, the aristocrat’s portrayed and motif-oriented characteristics of the Turkish carpets were addressed in detail. It was aimed to reveal the place of the carpets addressed within the discipline of art history, in Turkish cultural history and their effects on the British carpet production. In conclusion, it was turned out that they place premium on Turkish culture and art. 

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